Expand this Topic clickable element to expand a topic
Skip to content
Optica Publishing Group

Optical spectral analysis using moving space-charge field effects in photoconductive semiconductors

Not Accessible

Your library or personal account may give you access

Abstract

The interference of two mutually coherent optical fields with unequal center frequencies generates moving space-charge electric fields inside photoconductive semiconductors that contain deep level traps. The motion of the internal space-charge field drifts free charge carriers out of the photoconductive sample and results in measurable photocurrents that consist of ac and dc components even in the absence of external bias electric fields. The dc photocurrent can be expressed as a convolution integral between the baseband power spectrum of the signal optical field and the characteristic impulse response of the photoconductive crystal, provided that the local oscillator has negligible optical linewidth. We have demonstrated experimentally a new kind of optical spectrum analyzer with a resolution bandwidth smaller than 15 kHz by sweeping the local-oscillator center frequency over the spectral region of interest and by subsequent deconvolution of the recorded photocurrent with the characteristic response of the crystal. The scanning range of the analyzer is limited only by the tuning range of the local oscillator.

© 1996 Optical Society of America

Full Article  |  PDF Article
More Like This
Moving space-charge field effects in photoconductive semiconductors with interband optical excitation of free charge carriers

Chen-Chia Wang, Frederic Davidson, and Sudhir Trivedi
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 14(1) 21-26 (1997)

Photocurrents in photoconductive semiconductors generated by a moving space-charge field

F. M. Davidson, C. C. Wang, C. T. Field, and Sudhir Trivedi
Opt. Lett. 19(7) 478-480 (1994)

Simple laser velocimeter that uses photoconductive semiconductors to measure optical frequency differences

Chen-Chia Wang, Frederic Davidson, and Sudhir Trivedi
Appl. Opt. 34(28) 6496-6499 (1995)

Cited By

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Figures (7)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Figure files are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Equations (14)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Equations are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Select as filters


Select Topics Cancel
© Copyright 2024 | Optica Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved